Public Finance Strategy & Approach
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Public finance management is becoming an increasingly complex discipline owing to the compounding effects of socio-economic, technological, and institutional factors. The key challenge stems from the need to manage public funds in a transparent, efficient and accountable manner.
The iFIX helps address the following challenges linked to the information on government fiscal programmes -
Unlocking fiscal and operational data locked in silos
Generating relevant information based on common data standards
Ensuring the information generated is credible, reliable and verifiable
Accelerating fund flows by providing trusted, usable data and reducing the interdepartmental coordination time
The existing public finance system applies multiple information channel flows that are unique and can be accessed by various sources. iFIX simplifies the network and fiscal information flows through standardised formats and protocols.
As government service delivery requires multiple actors and interactions to come together across different levels, visibility of information is critical to bring down the cost of coordination. This includes real-time information on the financial health of a government agency/department - expenditure, revenue and availability of funds.
Public finance management faces significant challenges in terms of promoting accountability and transparency. The problem is more on account of siloed information structures that restrict the scope to get a broader view of the flow of funds or data across agencies and stakeholders.
The information flow is slow and limited, resulting in several gaps and breaks in the PFM processes. This is essentially attributed to the lack of information standards and exchange mechanisms, making it difficult to achieve a seamless data flow across agencies.
iFIX allows departments to share fiscal information from existing systems without having to invest in multiple integrations for different stakeholder requirements. The solution plays a pivotal role in driving efficient and performance-driven financial planning across all levels of governance. Real-time availability of financial information to stakeholders facilitates data-driven deployment of public funds and policy-making. The solution design specification sets the base for the real-time exchange of fiscal information across funding and implementing agencies.
iFIX identifies and resolves Public Financial Management issues like delays in funds flow, floating of unutilised funds, problems of low data fidelity, the administrative burden of implementation and outcome-oriented funding using the platform approach and associated policy reforms.
The platform helps achieve overall fiscal discipline, allocation of resources to priority needs and efficient and effective allocation of public services. Public financial management includes all phases of the budget cycle, including the preparation of the budget, internal control and audit, procurement, monitoring and reporting arrangements, and external audit.
The standardised fiscal event and exchange mechanism enable various government agencies e.g. various departments, local governments, autonomous bodies, national government, and development agencies to -
exchange fiscal data much like email systems exchange data with each other
ease flow of fiscal information resulting in better planning, better execution, better accounting and better auditing thus transforming the entire PFM cycle
promote transparency and improve accountability while ensuring real-time access to the financial health of the government stakeholders
iFIX offers a solution that standardises fiscal event data and the capabilities to exchange information across multiple sources. It is built as a digital public good and is open source with minimal specifications. The design incorporates the security and privacy of all data and users and ensures performance at scale.
Data standards streamline the flow of information paving the way for timely exchange and cost-effective means of managing fiscal events. The iFIX solution establishes the standards and specifications for fiscal event data that make it easier to exchange fiscal information between funding and implementing agencies. Event data is captured in real-time and at the micro level which ensures there is no intentional or unintentional data loss. Any transaction triggers a fiscal event that is accessible to integrated agencies for necessary approvals.
The standardized data exchange approach ensures that iFIX is not a replacement for the existing finance system. It is just a coordination and visibility layer between agencies within government and across governments.
